If you discovered your ancestors owned slaves , would you feel guilt and not reveal it ?

Answer 1

No you cannot feel guilt, because you cannot judge the past with the principles of the present.

Answer 2

My ancestors did own slaves. Practically every branch of my family lived in the Southern US before/during the civil war and, for those of a certain economic bracket, slave owning was a way of life.

Yes, today we can see that slavery is evil, but I do not feel guilt regarding this fact because I had nothing to do with it. I am aware of the fact that slavery has existed for thousands of years just about everywhere on earth. The fact that my family owned slaves is a fact. It cannot be changed and in no way affects me or the person that I am. No guilt felt here.

Answer 3

Slavery has existed since the beginning of time. It is very possible that some of my ancestors were a slave holders. It might have been 1200 BCE or 1200 CE. It doesn't matter when. There is no reason to feel guilt for something that I did not do. It is also possible that some of my ancestors were slaves. Almost anyone in the world can make these same statements. Your ancestors may have been slave holders or slaves.

Answer 4

Some of my ancestors owned slaves. It is also possible that at some time I had ancestors in the remote past who were slaves themselves. I do not feel any guilty that some of my ancestors owned slaves nor am I ashamed that some of them might have been slaves . There is no reason for one to feel guilty over the deeds of another person whom one never even knew.

Answer 5

First, before feeling guilty or guiltless, I would want to know the circumstances. It is an interesting subject matter since most of history I know--American history-- fails to mention of slavery. I would wonder why my family and American history hid this secret? Is it something they should have hidden? Is there shame? Is there more to this story than slavery? Hmm! Could I actually be related to the people my family owned? Would that upset the sanitized version of American or my family history?


I think that some Americans--I am using Americans because I am an American-- are afraid of those records. Yes, there are records! I have seen them with my own eyes. I dared to look at the records in the National Archives. I had the audacity to look at plantation and county records. Yes, there are plantation records. I think that I am old enough to hear the truth. The country is better than two-hundred years old and it can stand the truth. The truth ain't always pretty but it will set us free.

Answer 6

No, I wouldn't feel guilt. I'd probably think that my anxestors were rich, all there is to it. Back then all rich people had slaves (with very very few exceptions) they didn't know any better that slavery is bad and unhumane. You have no control over what your anxestors have done. If you do, you might as well strart now - I'm sure one of them either owned a slave, or killed a native American, or killed someone else in a war, or killed someone whith a stone ax just for the heck of it.

Answer 7

Should you go around bragging that "my family used to own your ***"? No.
Would it be shocking to find that a family living in the United States (particularly the Southern states) prior to the Emancipation Proclamation owned slaves? No.
A great number of our founding fathers owned slaves. Does that take away from their accomplishments? No.
Should the descendants of those slaves with legitimate claims of paternity by their owners be currently recognized as kin? YES.
The shame comes in trying to rewrite history in some acceptable way, because there will always be someone who finds your acceptable version unacceptable to them.
Ask the children of Strom Thurmond. Ask the decendants of Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson.
If you are interested in geneology, stand firm in the truth of the past. What you can control is who you are and how you act now.

Answer 8

connect the club. My ancestors have been small farmers in Georgia a a hundred and fifty years in the past and had a nil.5 dozen slaves. It does not mirror on me. What it does do is make me understand that absolutely everyone may be a slave or slave proprietor under the the terrific option circumstances. that's properly worth scuffling with from happening lower back, to end racism in all its varieties.

Answer 9

I think I would feel some guilt or at least a sense of responsibility in becoming more conscious of any attitudes I might have buried within me. If it was in my ancestry, then some form of those attitudes or beliefs could still be carried on through my family, however distant...I would reveal it though if there was a reason or need to...in other words I wouldn't feel like I had to hide it out of shame, nor would I want to tell it just for the sake of telling it (like bragging or something?!)

Answer 10

My ancestors have done all sorts of stupid stuff. My mom, for instance, actually thought my dad was a good guy to marry and have kids with.

Yech, she screwed that up.

I have enough moral failings of my own that I don't need to inherit prior generations' guilt. What you know is a fact. It's not one that would come up often. I wouldn't lie if I was asked about it. To do so would imply shame on my part.

I can't take credit for my ancestors' achievements, so I certainly won't go along for the ride on their moral lapse bandwagon.

Answer 11

not really, I mean there's nothing you can do about that. My ancestors (and yours too, probably) have both owned slaves and been slaves, if you go back far enough. This country just had the very poor taste to be one of the last to outlaw it......